Yves Lacoste as a geographer and a geopolitician

Abstract

The article presents the worldview concept and the work of the outstanding French scholar Yves Lacoste. He is a senior among the French geographers and geopoliticians, professor emeritus of the University Paris VIII. At the beginning of the paper the development of the classical French geography is presented, its methodological foundations laid by Vidal de la Blache and his successors. It was characteristic of this stream of thought in geography that it emphasised the regional perspective and the use of results of historical studies. These traditions had an important influence on the intellectual attitude and the scholarly activity of Lacoste’s, who referred very strictly to the mainstream of French regional school. Then, the paper gives an account of the political views and the life of Lacoste, as well as of his publications, associated with the issues related to geopolitics and geostrategy. This required providing a perspective on the Lacoste’s approach to geopolitics as a new, controversial scientific discipline. The definition of this discipline and of its subject scope, used by Lacoste, is provided. The attention is paid to the significant arbitrariness in application of terminology, which brought important negative consequences as to the ways of analysing political, demographic, military and social phenomena and processes, taking place in the concrete geographical reality.

The subsequent part of the article concerns the substantive assessment of the selected works of Lacoste’s. His book, entitled Geopolitics of the Mediterranean, which was also translated to Polish, stirred up quite an interest. The content of this book is outlined and the cognitive, as well as didactic qualities of this book are assessed. Given the place of birth of Lacoste (Fez in Morocco) and his life experience, no wonder he has been fascinated all the time by the consequences of colonialism, by the Muslim world, and by the issues related to the Arab countries. For this reason his opinions on the respective questions, still producing significant consequences for the former colonies and the former colonial empires, have been widely accepted. Nowadays, along with territory, demographic and economic potential, as well as military power, water resources have become an important, even though yet underestimated, geopolitical factor. This became the motivation for Lacoste to write a book, which was also translated into Polish. The analysis, presented in this book has quite a practical meaning, since water has been becoming a true strategic resource. Side by side with numerous books, Lacoste authored also and edited two atlases. One of them is a typical geographic atlas, showing on many maps France and the entire globe, according to continents and countries. The scientific value and the cartographic qualities of this atlas are assessed in the article. In a similar manner, another atlas – the Geopolitical Atlas – is also assessed. Particular attention is paid to the methodological aspects of this atlas and to the highly interesting graphic layout. This atlas contains a set of valuable maps and cartograms, showing the origins, the course and the consequences of the military conflicts, which took place in the 20^th century in various regions of the world.

Lacoste was the founder and the long time editor of the journal „Hérodote” which published the papers, written by the French geopoliticians and geographers. The journal gained a high esteem both in France and abroad. The scientific value and the significance in terms of promotion of the discipline are subject to assessment in the article. The article closes with the summary on the creative work of the French scholar, with special emphasis on his role in shaping the French school of geopolitics, encompassing his collaborators and followers.